Florida Panthers Roster 2025 Roster Preview: Fourth Line Forwards

They’re big, they’re mean, they’re ready to turn any game into a street fight. The Florida Panthers’ fourth line is full of hardworking players who are ready to throw down at the drop of a hat. That was perfectly showcased during the playoffs, but especially in Game 3 of the Cup Final when the line brawl broke out with Greer and Gadjovich getting into fights that would see them thrown out of the game. They didn’t score often, but they did get some great goals during the playoffs, with both Greer and Gadjovich recording their first career playoff goals. This line was great during the regular season and turned the tide during the playoffs.

Tomas Nosek:

Nosek has bounced around several teams during his career, but finally lifted Lord Stanley with the Panthers. He was the consistent fourth-line center until the trade deadline, when Florida brought in Nico Sturm. Sturm was solid during the Tampa Bay series but struggled against Toronto, so HC Paul Maurice made the call; he was switching out the entire fourth line. The rest is history now, the Cats win four of the next five games against the Leafs and move on to win their second straight Cup. During the regular season, Nosek played 59 games with 9 pts (1G, 8A) with 9:49 TOI, the first time in his career he’s had his TOI below 10 minutes. His shooting percentage was also down from his 5-8% average at 2.1, but he put up more points with Florida than he did with New Jersey a year prior. He had 47 SOG, and with limited special teams time, he had 1 PPG and 1 SHA. Tomas was solid in the faceoff dot with a FO% of 51.8 and a win/loss rate of 236-220. During the playoffs, he played the 2nd most games of his career at 16 and posted 3 pts from 3As, which is right in his average point production. Nosek’s TOI increased to 11:10, which is also within his average TOI for the postseason. Tomas did take 14 SOG, which was the most of his linemates. In the faceoff dot, he was right with Lundell with a FO% of 47.4 and a win/loss rate of 63-70; Lundell had a 47.6 FO% for the playoffs. Nosek recently celebrated his day with the Cup in his hometown of Pardubice, Czechia, with former teammate Vitek Vanecek making an appearance, and they showed off matching Cup tattoos. In a touching clip that came out after the Cup Final concluded, a mic’d up HC Paul Maurice told the fourth line players that they were getting the last shift so they could throw their gear on the ice. He credited them with being a catalyst for the Cats’ comeback against Toronto and wanted them to be on the ice when the final buzzer sounded. Nosek was heading to free agency, but ultimately got a deal done with the Panthers to stay for another season at league min. He probably could’ve gotten a bit more money on the open market like Lomberg or Stenlund did last year, but it seems that Florida is the place he wants to be. His contract was the final one of the starting unrestricted free agent players that got announced and sealed the deal that the entire on-ice forward group was coming back.

Jesper Boqvist:

Jesper played a bit with everyone this season, the biggest surprise being that HC Paul Muarice trusted him to play with his top-line players when injuries took guys out during the playoffs. Boqvist proved to be a valuable player who could slot into any line on either wing, much like Rodrigues. He played a career high 78 games during the regular season and matched his career high in points at 23 pts (12G,11A); the 12 goals are a career high as well. Jesper didn’t see a lot of special teams time but did record 1 SHG and had 3 GWGs. His 13:14 TOI was a career high with a 13.8 shooting percentage, which is the second best of his career. Boqvist had 87 SOG, which ties him with Eetu Luostarinen. As a secondary faceoff taker, he had a FO% of 42.3 with a win/loss rate of 71-97. The Panthers did run Jesper as a center early in the season when injuries necessitated it, and he performed fairly well on the fourth line. Following the fourth line change in the Leafs series, Jesper wasn’t in the lineup every night. But HC Paul Maurice has preached the importance of players being ready to join the lineup at a moment’s notice. That was on full display during the Toronto & Carolina series as both Rodrigues and Reinhart missed games due to injury. And instead of disrupting the rest of the lines, HC Paul Muarice instead trusted Boqvist to play with Barkov and whoever wasn’t injured at the time between Reinhart & Rodrigues. In those few games on the top line, Jesper recorded the first two playoff goals of his career, 1 against Toronto & 1 against Carolina. As well as getting a career-high 3 assists for a career-high 5 pts. He scored his two goals on just 7 SOG for a 28.6 shooting percentage and was well within his average TOI at 9:33. In the five faceoffs he took, he went 2-3 for a FO% of 40.0. Boqvist is one of those unsung hero players. He doesn’t put up a lot of flashy stats, but he’s a solid presence in the lineup and has proved he can play with the top players when situations deem it necessary. Bill Zito signed him to a two-year extension in the middle of the regular season; however, depending on how things turn out, Jesper could be a cap casualty. There’s no way to predict how injuries will affect the team during the season or how much time Tkachuk will miss, but for the time being, Boqvist will be on the roster opening night. Like the other players, Jesper had his Cup day in his hometown in Sweden and shared it with the community there.

Jonah Gadjovich:

All it took was one Cup Final game for Gadjovich to become both a meme and iconic. Gadjovich joined the Panthers for the 2023-24 season and signed an extension to stay in South Florida through next season. He played 42 regular-season games, recording 4 pts from a career-high 4 goals and averaged 8:27 TOI. Jonah nearly matched his career high shooting percentage of 9.4% with a 9.3% and 43 SOG. Gadjovich took 5 faceoffs and went 3-2 for a FO% of 60.0. Impressively, he had 2 game-winning goals in the regular season. Jonah’s a big player who throws hits and punches when needed, and he’s not afraid to do the hard things and will outwork you. This season marked his first-ever Stanley Cup Playoffs. While he was with Florida during their first Cup run, he didn’t see the ice, although his name is on the Cup with the 2023-24 team as well. In the 16 games he played, he had 3 pts (2G, 1A) with 7:36 TOI. Gadjovich posted a shooting percentage of 20.0 with 10 SOG, and he didn’t take any faceoffs during the postseason. What everyone is going to remember Jonah for, though, is the antics from Game 3 of the Cup Final. Between the game of charades he got into with Corey Perry while heading down the tunnel, the fight with Darnell Nurse, and the face he made as he was being led off the ice, it was both iconic and memeable. Something the Panthers’ team decided to lean into, making a shirt of Gadjovich’s face that was captured on camera as he was being led to the penalty box before ultimately getting kicked out of the game. Following the Game 3 win, Brad Marchand gave the game puck to Gadjovich for being, quote, “a f—ing animal”. He’s a great locker room guy. In his short speech after receiving the puck, he said, “We stick together, two f—ing more boys,” and if that doesn’t perfectly showcase how Florida’s locker room is, I don’t know what does. Except perhaps what Gadjovich did after the Game 5 win, where he gave the game puck to backup goalie Vitek Vanecek. When handing out the puck, he said, “Tonight it’s going to a f—ing great teammate who shows up to work every day, Vanny,” to some of the biggest cheers of the whole postseason. He’s the type of player you’d want to go to war with and a glue guy that’s not going to light up the scoresheet but will defend his teammates every single time.

A.J. Greer:

Like Gadjovich, Boqvist, and Nosek, Greer has bounced around between teams and is with Florida for at least another season. A.J. had a career year playing in 81 games (career-high), posting 17 pts (6G, 11A) with 9:35 TOI; the goals tied his career high, the points & assists are a career high, and the TOI is the second most of his career. He was a consistent presence on the LW of the fourth line, not something that Florida did the year before, where there was more rotation of the fourth line players apart from Stenlund at center. He posted 87 SOG with a shooting percentage of 7.0, well within his average. While Greer didn’t see much special teams, he did record 1 SHG & 3 GWG. He took a few faceoffs and went 16-31 for a FO% of 34.0. Like Gadjovich, this year was his first year playing in the postseason, although he was with the Bruins during the 2022-2023 campaign; he didn’t see the ice in the first round. Greer scored the first two playoff goals and first playoff assist of his career for a total of 3 pts with a TOI of 7:38. For what HC Paul Maurice asks of that line, a point per series is pretty good production. It echoes the task he set to Tarasenko a year before: he wanted one goal per series from Vladimir. Of A.J.’s two goals, one of them was a game-winner, which mirrors his regular season split of 3 game-winners to his 6 total goals. He tallied 12 SOG and a 16.7 shooting percentage. Greer took 9 faceoffs, going 5-4 for a 55.6 FO%. He was also involved in the line brawl in Game 3 of the Cup Final, where he chest bumped Gadjovich in the penalty box. Depending on how you look at it, it’s either a good thing or a bad thing that Greer set a career high in PIMs at 130. On the one hand, it tells me that he was quick to defend his teammates and get involved in a scrum or start one. On the other hand, it left Florida short-handed a lot, and not every penalty was one he needed to take. Like Marchand, Nosek, and Boqvist, he’s now on the other side of the Florida/Boston growing rivalry and was there when the Panthers eliminated the record-setting Bruins. But now he’s immortalized as a Stanley Cup Champion with the Cats. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him extend after his current contract is up, but if he chooses to go get paid elsewhere, then good on him. Greer’s earned a pay raise and has been fantastic for the Florida Panthers.

Up Next: Florida’s top defensive pairing.